Two cousins, David and Benji, have decided to travel together to Poland for a tour of their family heritage. The two are a classic "odd couple": one fastidious and the other messy, one reserved and the other outgoing... and also: one a fairly put-together family man and the other, we learn, troubled with mental health issues. As the cousins travel with a tour group, we gradually find out more about the circumstances that led them to this trip.
A Real Pain is the creation of actor Jesse Eisenberg, who not only stars in, but wrote and directed this film. It's the sort of movie you'd expect an actor to create as they try to expand their career to writing and directing -- a character-driven story built for a limited budget and an art house audience. There's barely a story here. David and Benji take their trip, have experiences, and are likely changed by it all... but it's hard to say what exactly the movie is about, how exactly the characters grow, or what exactly the message is.
There are plenty of movies like this, and they're generally not for me. But such movies live or die by the casting, and I endorse what the Academy has said by awarding Kieran Culkin an Oscar: the performances elevate this material. And if these sort of quiet character studies do align with your taste in movies? Then you might find A Real Pain to be really great.
Interestingly, the movie doesn't come off as a vanity project for its writer-director-star. The bestowing of the Oscar on Culkin is the big tip-off: the showier, meatier role in this movie is absolutely that of Benji. And Culkin plays the part wonderfully, infusing the character with all the obnoxious annoyances it requires without ever coming off as a caricature. Benji is recognizably infuriating, in a way that will be familiar to anyone who doesn't unreservedly love every single person in their family.
Eisenberg does give himself one great monologue at the heart of the movie... though even this moment is ultimately about Benji, the titular character who demands full attention at all times. But otherwise, Eisenberg was content to let Culkin take the spotlight and earn his awards, while also giving room for smaller, subtle performances from a cast including Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, and others.
One story choice I wrestled with was the backdrop of the Holocaust. The journey of David and Benji is absolutely centered on their Jewish heritage; they wouldn't be traveling to Poland otherwise. And the scene in which they visit the concentration camp Majdanek is one of the most powerful in the movie. But also, that sort of heaviness (in that scene and others) really overwhelms the overall tone of the movie. I feel like A Real Pain is meant to be at least equal parts funny and dramatic, perhaps even primarily a comedy. But I sensed hardly any lightness from it at all. I felt every minute of the movie's 90-minute run time -- not because pacing was off, but because the serious topics it engaged with so filled the space.
Ultimately, I'd give A Real Pain a B-. I absolutely get how it was an Oscar-winning movie for a performer while being nominated almost nowhere else. But I think it was a worthy performance, one you might want to check out.
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